Yes, I know.
Some of you will be on me like a ton of bricks, because you thought we were poor.
Indeed we were, at times.
Forest put us under massive pressure early on and it took us the best part of fifteen minutes to get to grips with the game. But we managed to get the first goal against the run of play after Albert adomah rounded the keeper following a nice through ball from Kodjia.
If I was Mark Warburton, I’d have been well annoyed, but that takes me to my point later.
We then dominated, I thought, until half time, where Warburton no doubt got the hairdryer out and Forest came out a much better side.
So much so, that they had us on the back foot and duly scored, after some very poor defending all round.
Fair play to Daryl Murphy though. He had to work hard for his goal, after having had little to work with.
We might view it as poor defending, but the lad did well and deserves credit for his goal.
That said, we did look somewhat ponderous and slow.
And so the game rolled on, where I was extremely worried that we might bottle it, yet again.
Only for Conor Hourihane to bend one into the net from a free kick, for us to take a 2-1 lead.
We created further chances, but then went through a decidedly dodgy patch in the 80th minute on, where the defence looked like they were totally panicking. Experience doesn’t get you through severe pressure, does it?
Still, we held them off and Forest’s momentum fairly quickly ran out of steam.
Ok, you might say Forest are no great shakes.
But the point here is that we drew this same fixture last season and so we’ve gained 2 points.
Last season, as soon as the oppo scored, so we seemed to fall apart.
That certainly didn’t happen in this game and we continued to knock the ball around nicely at times.
One thing I will say, is that their No 5 was one dirty bastard. He pushed, pulled and elbowed players all over the place and was lucky to get away with only a booking.
I’d have loved him at the Villa thirty or forty years ago. A proper player.
Anyway, we face Burton Albion away next, with Bolton to follow.
Burton might be a bit tricky, but Bolton are looking like whipping boys.
Another six points in the bag and things are looking decidedly better.
Get your heads around that, those who aren’t quite seeing it yet.
That’s not a dig at anyone in particular, but something that I can see causing some decent debate.
To be honest, I still have some doubts about how we’ll fare against the better sides, but that’s for another day.
And I can only enjoy a Villa win, as that’s all it’s about for me.
My Derby mate promised me they’d do Blues today.
He’s in for a round of proverbials tomorrow.
It was a win.
Happy days for me and I’m on the piss (a bit, work tomorrow đ )
badger
anything less than 14 points in september was going to be a very poor return especially with the fixtures ,more interested how it will pan out in october we are still playing catch up after poor start,top 2 is where we should be no question after money spent on fees wages
we will take any win but they are going to have start becoming easier not bringing huton on for last few mins,edge of seat or behind sofa
I don’t quite understand the Hutton one, tbh.
Surely a ten minute, all out session as a trainer, would give more?
It was more about fresh legs though, than anything, imo.
Made sense put Elmo higher up and Hutton to defend
now now oohaah
saying hutoon and defend in one sentence mental
Oohah, claiming Hutton can defend? Really? Worst defender in the league. Would’ve been better to put Samba on.
At least Hutton gives a 100% every game
Got some tough matches. Canât see us getting anything from wolves away and blues away will be a draw at best.
Winning becomes a habit!
I thought we looked fairly solid. I am looking forward to Kodjia achieving full fitness and Davis being developing 90 minutes stamina. The reason is straight forward – with both on the field thief is no defence in this league who will have an easy ride against these two. The more I watch Davis, the more I am convinced he has the ability to go along way in football. Put his brute strength, ability to hold up a ball and lay off to his team mates, allows Kodjia space and ability to run at defences.
I don’t think Whelan adds much to the team currently. He appears out of form and unlucky, e.g. Inadvertently set up their goal.
Once Kodjia and Davis were off we were always going to be under the cosh, as there was no out ball.
SB won’t be dismissed if he continues in this vain.
UTV
Wonât be long before Davis buggers off though. May get one more season out of him if lucky
I think we have a better shot of keeping him then say Kodjia if we don’t go up. I think we’re at the point we can keep someone like Davis for a few years. I mean look how often Milner, Young and Barry were linked away, yet we held them until at the time the money was too good. Then again we need to get Davis to sign a new contract.
The point is we will sell him at some point we will never be a club that can hold onto its best players. We are a selling club so will never be successful
Well yeah, 95% of clubs are selling clubs. The only one’s who people can’t claim are selling clubs are Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern, United, Chelsea, City and Juventus. Literally unless a player asks to leave, they won’t be sold unless they’re no longer wanted. Just how the world works. You gotta be one of the biggest and richest clubs to keep talent.
The difference is we donât replace with a like for like player
We needed to win and we did, but not convincing again. Very similar to last year.
I think if you are playing 4-4-2, your two central midfielders have to be very good. I just dont think Whelan is good enough to be in there as a two man midfield.
Kodjia and Davis make a good partnership, and with Hogan as back up thats a good front line, but Im not sure even Jedinak would be good enough in a 4 4 2.
Man U didn’t convince me for a while, Benno, but they still did well, for a bit.
No comparison, of course, but just saying.
This is what Bruce does and it’s how he’s got promoted so many times, imo.
Scrape average wins and don’t lose many.
There’s no set pattern, which is what makes it interesting.
Bruce openly admits he doesn’t do tactics and plays the game as he sees it.
When it doesn’t go well, we look shit.
But if it gets us points, I don’t care.
Whelan looked bloody poor today, I agree.
Mind you, so did Onomah.
That said, they can all look poor, as long as we get the win.
I’m sure Bruce knows he will be gone if we get promoted.
We were comfortably the better team even if there was plenty of room for improvement. How did Whelan manage to become a legend at Stoke when he is so slow and gives away the ball in dangerous positions so often. And I was so pleased when Onomah came on as I thought heâd keep hold of the ball and pass well but he gave it away almost every touch. Weâve coached that Spurs possession football right out of him. However should have had at least 1 pen and Mills should have been sent off so over all we deserved the win, had easily the better chances
forest where all over us till we scored,we probably shaded firsthalf,dont recall many saves by forest keeper,2nd half it was forest or our defence creating most half chances. and again bruces subs where crazy davies tired after an hour puts on hogan then takes of kodja which made sense but should been other way round,and as you say didnt take long for ooamh to look poor,then hutton the master at giving away goals pens freekicks comes on
I thought a draw was the fairest result no side did enough to win the game imo but we just had a bit of luck thankfully
We scored two they scored one… That’s enough for me imo.
That’s just it though, Badger. United for 20 odd years became a winning team by grinding results out. Rarely under Fergie did they dominate games, unless it was against the absolute lowest of teams. But he gave the team the mindset that you can grind out wins and they became a results team. When have we ever been a grind it out, results side? That mentality isn’t there and if Bruce can in 1 season create that mentality, then huge props too him, but I’m not sold yet. A win is a win however.
Nail on head, Andrew.
It might not be pretty, but we ground out a win today, albeit I think we edged it.
Which is my whole point.
Maybe we’re getting that mindset?
I’m far from sold too, but as per, it’s all about results.
We won this one, where we drew last year.
That’s a result, simple.
That shouldn’t be decried, imo.
We were still lucky today. Btw when was the last time we played well for 90 mins and won? No I canât remember either
Think our biggest problem is why I don’t want us going 4-4-2 and still think 4-3-3 is our best formation. We don’t have a midfield that can handle 2 in midfield. Whelan is too slow, and incredibly mediocre for a 2 man midfield, and I don’t think Jedinak has it in him to do it either. Unless this is just something we’re going to do against lesser sides and go back to 4-3-3 against sides near the top. You need someone like Kante or Matic to play 2 in midfield, and we don’t have a dominant midfielder.
What are u talking about Utd always dominated possession in most games they played under Fergie and still do now. Itâs only when they play another top 4 team that they they donât dominate. Look at Utd now they only need one goal to win a game because they keep possession for long periods which takes the sting out of the opposition not because they have a great defence. Though De Gea is world class. With us we go a goal up and sit back which is why we struggle to hold onto a lead. And as we canât retain possession for long periods the pressure builds up and we concede
Southampton had more possession than United. They don’t dominate possession, however they hold it well and counter incredibly well. When they play away to good teams, not even great, they don’t dominate possession, ala Southampton. But they had the mentality to win games. Allow few chances on goal. United aren’t about dominating possession, nor does having that possession mean they dominated the game. Pep’s Barcelona dominated posession. They passed it constantly within the final third of the opposition team, waited for that opening or that run and bam. United don’t do that. They hold onto it solely for the purpose the other team cannot have it. If we ever became a possession side, we’d be the latter. Dominating would be what we did under Lambert in his first season where we played with no fear against anyone. If only he didn’t get scared and go the way of McLeish or Bruce who are also too scared to play real football.
Onomah is a waste of space we are losing out playing him all the time thatâs valuable game time we could give to Oâ hare who is better imo.
He needs to play behind the striker. Only way he’ll ever be effective for us. He’s a good option off the bench though. If we ever had to switch it from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 type. Other than youth though, I don’t get why people think we have a strong squad. Did some see our bench today? Was incredibly poor. But then again we can’t/won’t just drop the higher earners to the reserves where they belong like Samba, Gabby and Hutton and bring in far better younger players.
I don’t go with the theory that we should be in the top two because of the transfer fees we have paid and the large wages we provide.
We have paid more than the transfers are worth and pay them more than they deserve because we are Aston Villa, the biggest club,in terms of revenue, in the division.That means other clubs know that we will pay well over the odds for players and agents have the same attitude.
The bottom line is that, apart from Terry and Whelan, who are both past their peak, we have a squad of Championship only quality players at best. Consequently we are not head and shoulders above anybody else but should be able to at least compete.
But then why did we waste so much money going for Championship players instead of going abroad for players equally as talented for a quarter/half the price? I mean if we’ve only bought a bunch of Championship standard players, surely we should’ve done the financially reasonable thing, no? And likely gotten a set of players better than what we have?
We supposedly bought the best of the best in the Championship. Lansbury and Hourihane were supposed to be 2 of the best midfielders, Kodjia, McCormack and Hogan three of, if not the best strikers. Huddersfield is doing really well for a supposed Championship side. They have 5 English players they’ve played so far in the league, and they sit relatively comfortably at 8th. Watford have also only played 5 English players so far and they sit comfortably in 6th and look absolutely fantastic. So why did we go the way of overspending on standard Championship players if we weren’t buying the best of the best that should be heads and shoulders above any other team in the league?
Because those players canât cope with the expectation level of a club like ours though Hourihan is beginning to. Also they played in a more balanced team where Bruce hasnât a clue what his best team is
Is it they can’t cope with the expectations (seeing I’d assume the players have the expectations of playing in the Premier League one day, even at their old squads), or are they being used incorrectly?
Probably the latter
I missed half the game including the two goals but saw us give the ball away way too often. That has got to stop. Other than that we looked assured and I’m well impressed with Johnson’s goalkeeping so far.
Shame he will be back at Utd next season. Exactly why I donât want Liam signings pointless
Why would he be back at United? He’s never going to play for them as first team keeper and they just signed Romero to a long term contract as he’s happy making huge money to be 2nd choice. Plus they have a young Portuguese keeper as third choice. He’d actually be easy to sign permanently if we wanted. Not that he’s good enough yet if we go up.
Plus I thought you didn’t want him? And you’d rather we just had Steer play?
In that case why are united keeping him. Also De Gea will go to RM at some stage
We’ve gone from losing every week to drawing to many games now we are grinding out wins.
It’s a refreshing change to be able to celebrate winning yet for a few it’s still not good enough.
I thought, but maybe I’m wrong, the aim of the game was to win, regardless of how it’s achieved.
Progress IS being made yet the saddest thing to see is it riles some folk who claim to be “fans” that we ARE making progress
Bruce may not be everyone’s cup of tea for various reasons but the way the bloke has conducted himself speaks volumes for his professionalism.
Teams are beginning to take notice of us again and 2 wins in our next 2 games will set us up very nicely indeed for October.
IN BRUCE I TRUST.
Thatâs because itâs just papering over the cracks. We are not grinding out wins in the true sense of the word we are just fluking games
Thought we were poor and a bit lucky to win. I don’t remember their keeper being troubled apart from our two goals.
The football is turgid. We can’t keep possession and we can’t make simple progress through midfield.
Forest played better football for most of the second half. Yet they are a mediocre team.
Yes we won but I’m really not impressed. Does anyone on here believe we would get anything out of Leeds for example with that sort of performance?
Hourihane plays too deep, often alongside Whelan. Unless Davies was injured, taking him off for Onomah was senseless. He squandered possession – too lightweight when we aren’t dominating.
It keeps Bruce in his job, and I think that’s the last thing we need.
Agree. That Onomah is a waste of space imo and heâs hampering the development of our own youth players
A win is a win is a win…..so frustrated that we couldn’t get going in midfield.Alwzys outnumbered and slow to react…they kept winning the ball off us time after time.I wanted to see us play some steady balls up to the front but it rarely happened.
Dont take Burton for granted and you know we will let Bolton look better than they are….that’s my crap prediction hoping we win both 3 nil.
Still buzzing after yesterday, nothing like a couple of wins on the bounce to give you a timely boost with tough games on the horizon. Many think Burton should be another 3 easy points, I don’t think so. They play every game as if it’s their last in this league, and at home they will be a very tough nut to crack. But hopefully the confidence we now have from the last 2 wins can get us over the line.
Something that’s been mentioned quite a lot recently is for all of Bruce’s signings, he’s still heavily reliant on Di Matteo signings. Well not yesterday, it was a man he himself brought in came to the rescue yesterday, and not for the first time this season, Hourihane. What makes Hourihane’s start to this season even more pleasing is he is now looking like the player we acquired from Barnsley, how many times have we signed a player flying for his club, only to crumble once he gets here? Like Lansbury, for example.
As for improvement, I think it’s there to see. In more ways than one. Bruce is approaching 1 year in charge of us, when he came in we had 1 win and sat in the bottom 3. We are currently 2 points off top 6, and with homes games against the likes of Bolton coming up expect us to close that gap further. Imagine if things went south again, and ended in Bruce losing the job. The manager coming in after him would be inheriting a much healthier, stronger team than the one that was here when Bruce himself came in. So there has been improvement, but all we want to see now is ourselves fighting in amongst those top 6 spots. Hopefully come next international break we will be right in there.
UTV.
Burton are just the sort of team to turn us over on tue. Would be no surprise to me if we drop points against them. Wolves away forget it weâve no chance of winning that one they have s good team and a good manager. Blues will more than likely be a draw with us holding on for dear life. We never have an easy game against them the best of times.
I wouldn’t say Burton will turn us over, while they will prove a difficult test our quality should find a way through. As for Wolves, they are looking very good you’re right. I’d take a point from that one if you offered it to me, but we might have one advantage. While not as big as the blue noses, it’s still a Derby. Will the likes of Nuno and their foreign signings really but for it or understand the meaning of it as much as Bruce and the likes of Terry, Chester and Adomah will? I don’t think so. But that game is for another day, we have a few to get through first.
Good to get the win but I wasn’t impressed by the performance at all. If we’re going to carry on playing 442 we need to get Whelan out the team, he hasnt got the legs to play in a 2 man midfield and is visibly knackered after a few minutes. Jedinak is an improvement, but still we need more mobility to make it work against the better sides of the division.
Two must wins coming up, Bolton should be a nailed on 3 points but Burton will be tricky as no doubt its there biggest home game of the season and barring last weeks win at Barnsley, our overall away form is abysmal. If we’re serious about turning the corner Bruce needs 6 points from the next two to put us back in contention.
It just shows how dreadful our start was that with back to back wins we are still 7 points off the top.
Remember last year we pounded Forest and ended up with a draw. Definitely room for improvement but kept going after we conceded. Not a fan of Wheelan and would like to see more strength in Midfield. ( Definitely not Bjarnason) look good going forward but still a little nervy at the back. At the end of the day it’s results that count and it’s another 3 points.
Surely jedinak will replace whelan, and then we’ll have a very decent team that should be top 6
I suspect Jedinak and Whelan will alternate.
They’re both decent players, who do a job, but both are not capable of going the whole season. Which is why Bruce bought Whelan, imo.
In other news, it seems McCormack is going to Melbourne.
A bit of a strange one, but it just demonstrates that the player and manager just hate each other, as I suggested a while back, regardless of what Bruce said in wishing him luck.
But can those two last 46 games? Especially with Jedinak’s current injury problems?They’re literally our only two defensive midfielders bar maybe Lyden who do it. And Whelan is still untrustworthy when Jedinak is to be rested.
Agreed, McCormack and Bruce don’t like each other. Bruce is trying to show he’s the nice guy or he’d be willing to play him, but that’s whatever. I can see it lasting till January and then seeing him gone.
Keinan davis scores! yes!
Adomah! 2-0!
2-0 now…what the hells goin on….
We want 6!
lol!
Early days but in to the play off places on goal difference. Come on Villa a 3rd will kill this game off. UTV.
“Expansive footy” Steve. Keep it in mind and we’ll piss this.
We look to have way too much for Burton, imo.
They make us look like Barcelona
This is what we should be able to do against the majority of teams in this league. We should be really going for the jugular now. let’s see if Bruce gets it.